More states hold their primaries or caucuses today than any other day, and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are expected to win most states. Big wins for the former secretary of state and the New York real-estate mogul would hasten their respective marches toward the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations.

Pay close attention tonight to Texas, where home-state son Ted Cruz is looking to pull off a victory in the GOP primary. And in Vermont and Oklahoma, Clinton’s rival Bernie Sanders is aiming to hold back the former first lady’s momentum.

Here’s what’s at stake tonight. For the Democrats, 859 delegates are being allocated from the state races. On the Republican side, 595. Today’s contests aren’t winner-take-all; delegates are awarded proportionally. Even so, victories in multiple states by Clinton and Trump will make them harder to catch.

Thirteen states and one U.S. territory are holding contests today, but 11 states are awarding delegates. Here are the ones awarding delegates to Republicans: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.

Republicans despairing of their party’s crisis can always try cushioning the blow by signing up for an account at Predictit.org, where you can legally place modest wagers on the election, and putting some money on Hillary Clinton to win the White House in November.

That way, if Trump leads the party to disaster and Clinton sweeps into power, you’ll at least make enough money for a decent meal out – or a good bottle of Scotch with which to drown your sorrows.

Betting at Predictit currently gives Clinton no better than a 60pc chance of becoming the next president. If Trump secures a commanding lead in today’s primaries that is going to look pretty low. Clinton would have to be heavily favored in a matchup.

The last of her email dump has just been released and the State Department has said none of them was classified at the time they were sent – suggesting a fading risk of a serious legal issue.

However, if you’re worried about that, you can always use Predictit to bet against Trump’s November chances instead betting on Hillary. market gives Trump about a 38pc chance of becoming president, and you can just sell that short.

Quite interesting news out of Virginia that Rubio is giving Trump a run for his money, considering that Trump led Rubio by about 14 points in polls ahead of the primary. This may be a sign that Trump is in for a more-difficult night than anyone expected. Here’s how they’re each doing with voters:

Sanders won his home state of Vermont, but nowhere else so far tonight. This begs the question: Will he stay in or drop out? With each state Clinton wins, she adds to her already-formidable delegate count, which includes superdelegates. That makes it prohibitively difficult for Sanders to catch her.

Texas’ polls close at 9 p.m. Eastern — the same time for which Trump has scheduled a news conference. Coincidence? Hardly. If Cruz wins his home state Trump can use his event to tout all his victories and take air time away from Cruz. He did just this kind of thing last week when Chris Christie endorsed him on a day that Rubio was otherwise dominating the media.

Hillary Clinton is speaking now — in Miami. Florida is not a Super Tuesday state. That’s sending a strong general-election message, that she’s already challenging the Republican nominee in the very important swing state.

Florida’s primary is March 15. As of tonight, she’s continuing her aggressive march toward the nomination.

It looks like Cruz is now the only viable anti-Trump left. The Republicans’ last hope of stopping Trump may be the (remote) chance of Rubio, Carson and Kasich all dropping out and rallying behind Cruz.

Folks, we’re going to wrap up the live blog for this evening. Trump scored big wins but Cruz bagged Texas and Oklahoma, and Rubio was just now projected to win Minnesota. It’s been a good night for Trump, but as this MarketWatch First Take explains, maybe not for the reason you think.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, looks more like the eventual nominee than ever after tonight, winning seven states to Sanders’ four.

Thanks for following along and keep following @capitolreport and @MarketWatch.